Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter I In Secret
Chapter II The Grindstone
Chapter III The Shadow
Chapter IV Calm in Storm
Chapter V The Wood-sawyer
Chapter VI Triumph
Chapter VII A Knock at the Door
Chapter VIII A Hand at Cards
Chapter IX The Game Made
Chapter X The Substance of the
Shadow
Chapter XI Dusk
Chapter XII Darkness
Chapter XIII Fifty-two
Chapter XIV The Knitting Done
Chapter XV The Footsteps Die Out
For Ever
The Period
It was the best of times, it was the
worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the
age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the
epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the
season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the
winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had
nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we
were all going direct
the other way--in short, the period was
so far like the present
period, that some of its noisiest
authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in
the superlative degree
of comparison only.
II
The Mail
It was the Dover road that lay, on a
Friday night late in November,
before the first of the persons with
whom this history has business.
The Dover road lay, as to him, beyond
the Dover mail, as it lumbered
up Shooter's Hill. He walked up hill in
the mire by the side of the
mail, as the rest of the passengers did;
not because they had the
least relish for walking exercise, under
the circumstances, but
because the hill, and the harness, and
the mud, and the mail, were
all so heavy, that the horses had three
times already come to a stop,
besides once drawing the coach
across the road, with the mutinous
intent of taking it back to Blackheath.
Reins and whip and coachman
and guard, however, in combination,
had read that article of war
which forbade a purpose otherwise
strongly in favour of the argument,
that some brute animals are endued
with Reason; and the team had
capitulated and returned to their duty.
"What passenger?"
"Hallo, Joe."
III
"Long ago."
Dig--dig--dig--until an impatient
movement from one of the two
passengers would admonish him to
pull up the window, draw his arm
securely through the leathern strap,
and speculate upon the two
slumbering forms, until his mind lost
its hold of them, and they
again slid away into the bank and the
grave.
"Long ago."
IV
The Preparation
"Yes."
"Indeed, sir!"
"So soon?"
"Myself."
"Story!"
"Not of Beauvais?"
The Wine-shop
"Yes."
"Changed!"
"Why?"
The Shoemaker
"Good day!"
"Here is a visitor."
"Assuredly I did."
"What is this?"
"Porter wanted!"
II
A Sight
"Nothing yet."
"Witnesses."
"Against."
"The prisoner's."
III
A Disappointment
"I am."
"It did."
"Two."
"They did."
"No."
"No."
"I have."
"When?"
"He was."
"Miss Manette!"
"Yes, sir."
"Where?"
"Yes, sir."
"Recall it."
"Yes, my Lord."
"No."
"The worst."
"Yes, sir."
IV
Congratulatory
The Jackal
"How much?"
"_She_ pretty?"
Hundreds of People
Expected home.
Expected home.
"Indeed?"
"Never."
"Afraid?"
VII
Monseigneur in Town
VIII
Monseigneur in the Country
"Monseigneur, it is true."
"Well?"
"Again, well?"
She looked an old woman, but was
young. Her manner was one of
passionate grief; by turns she clasped
her veinous and knotted hands
together with wild energy, and laid
one of them on the carriage-door
--tenderly, caressingly, as if it had
been a human breast, and could
be expected to feel the appealing
touch.
"Monseigneur? That?"
It was done.
"Well?"
"From London?"
"Yes."
"Yes."
"With a daughter?"
"Yes."
Two Promises
"She is."
Another blank.
"Yes, go on."
"No."
"Nor written?"
"Never."
"Stop!"
"Willingly.
XI
A Companion Picture
"I am."
"_Do_ you?"
"Guess."
"Guess."
"I am not going to guess, at five
o'clock in the morning, with my
brains frying and sputtering in my
head. If you want me to guess, you
must ask me to dinner."
"I did?"
"You approve?"
"Yes, I do."
XIII
XIV
"Yes, Jerry."
"Yes, I am."
Knitting
"Many things."
"For instance--"
Still Knitting
"He is English."
"John."
"I have."
"Children?"
"No children."
XVII
One Night
"Quite, my child."
XVIII
Nine Days
"Out?"
An Opinion
"Yes!"
"Once."
XX
A Plea
XXI
Echoing Footsteps
"The Prisoners!"
"The Records!"
"The secret cells!"
"The Prisoners!"
"Monsieur, it is a cell."
"Show it me!"
"Nothing."
XXII
XXIII
Fire Rises
There was a change on the village
where the fountain fell, and where
the mender of roads went forth daily
to hammer out of the stones on
the highway such morsels of bread as
might serve for patches to hold
his poor ignorant soul and his poor
reduced body together. The prison
on the crag was not so dominant as of
yore; there were soldiers to guard
it, but not many; there were officers to
guard the soldiers, but not
one of them knew what his men would
do--beyond this: that it would
probably not be what he was ordered.
"Touch then!"
"No dinner?"
"Nothing but supper now," said the
mender of roads, with a hungry face.
"Here."
"At sunset."
"Surely."
"About."
"About. Good!"
"Why?"
"Why, Mr. Darnay? D'ye hear what he
did? Don't ask, why,
in these times."
"I do."
"Gabelle."
"Gabelle."
"No."
In Secret
"When passed?"
"Thirty-seven."
"Married, Evremonde?"
"Yes."
"Where married?"
"In England."
"In England."
"How do I know!"
The Grindstone
"Charles."
"What of Charles?"
"Here.
"Here, in Paris?"
"La Force!"
The Shadow
"Perhaps at my wine-shop?"
"DEAREST,--Take courage. I am
well, and your father has
influence around me. You cannot
answer this.
Kiss our child for me."
IV
Calm in Storm
Doctor Manette did not return until the
morning of the fourth day of
his absence. So much of what had
happened in that dreadful time as
could be kept from the knowledge of
Lucie was so well concealed from
her, that not until long afterwards,
when France and she were far apart,
did she know that eleven hundred
defenceless prisoners of both sexes
and all ages had been killed by the
populace; that four days and
nights had been darkened by this
deed of horror; and that the air
around her had been tainted by the
slain. She only knew that there
had been an attack upon the prisons,
that all political prisoners had
been in danger, and that some had
been dragged out by the crowd and
murdered.
The Wood-Sawyer
"Yes, citizen."
"Yes, dearest."
"Yes, citizen."
"For to-morrow!"
VI
Triumph
Undoubtedly it was.
A citizeness of France?
Yes. By birth.
VII
"Yes."
VIII
A Hand at Cards
"Indeed?"
"Under a threat?"
"I did."
"Who took him out of it?"
"I am sometimes."
IX
"Ah!"
"Surely, surely."
"Yes, unhappily."
"Never."
"For me."
"You will be careful to keep them
separate, citizen? You know the
consequences of mixing them?"
"Perfectly."
"Openly, President."
"By whom?"
"Good."
"Good."
"Let it be read."
"I am."
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
* * *
XI
Dusk
The wretched wife of the innocent
man thus doomed to die, fell under
the sentence, as if she had been
mortally stricken. But, she uttered
no sound; and so strong was the voice
within her, representing that
it was she of all the world who must
uphold him in his misery and not
augment it, that it quickly raised her,
even from that shock.
"Yes."
XII
Darkness
"How?"
"Good evening."
"Why not?"
"Yes!"
"Nothing, Carton."
XIII
Fifty-two
"What is it?"
"No."
"Vapour?"
"Something that crossed me?"
"Hurry, hurry!"
"Of course."
* * *
This is she.
It is.
XV
"Yes."
"Yes."
* * *